TBH: Thinking beyond hashtags
It has been about 10 days since the gruesome double murder that took place at Sathankulam, and now even the CBI has stepped in to investigate, so am hoping a speedy and proper justice is served.
But there is something else that I want to talk about.
Rajini just shared his opinion on the issue, and while few are already off rushing to trend the new found hashtag that he mentioned, others have been criticizing him for being so late in voicing his view.
Am not supporting Rajini here, but I feel irrespective of whether the Superstar came out earlier or not, I feel the whole movement over the issue hasnโt brought anything substantial.
My opinion is kind of nuanced, so spare me bit more patience before you come to attack me.
I am really happy how people were able to create massive trends all over social media and bring the issue to everyoneโs attention unlike the countless other issues which die off before seeing the media light. But, in this effort I feel we have hyper-sensitized people with the social trends news without bringing any discourse over the larger issue at play here, that of police violence.
Believe me when I say this, people have come to terms that this issue is now in safe hands since it has been take up by the judicial system and CBI, and will soon go back to designing the common DPโs and countdowns for their stars birthdays.
People realized that it was a systemic problem, but in their fight to show they cared for the issue made it a single focal point and now the mass population is never going to be aware or think constructively about the bigger problem. (I mean here that I understand that all of India also have come to understand the issue with police, but we have not given them the right information tools to think about it)
Soon after hashtags about the issue started trending last week, one swath off population is discussing conspiracy theories and debating how much solatium each party gave while the other intellectual side is making listicles of bad cop movies and pointing fingers at celebs who they accuse of not supporting them.
EVERYONE WANTS TO SHOW THEY CARE ABOUT THE ISSUE BUT NO ONE WANTS TO MAKE SURE SOMETHING LIKE THIS NEVER HAPPENS.
SO HERE ARE SOME LINKS AND POINTERS TO PEOPLE WHO REALLY WANT TO STEER THIS TO A BETTER MOVEMENT:
1) History of governing laws over police
2) Status of Police Complaints Authority in TN
3) Earlier police brutality cases in TN (thread)
4) Training guidelines for police
5) Though I may receive flak for this, I feel all police are not bad, but their training systems, laws that protect them and us the public who never actively question this that lead to bad police. In that faint hope that I carry here are a few reform suggestions I came across that I am compiling here:
Review of existing policy reforms like the Model Police Bill and at the least legislate it
Mandatory CCTV provisions in all police stations
Alternative complaint addressal method(maybe online) for registering police misbehavior
Online portal to inform basic citizen laws that one is entitled during time of arrest in their native language
More training modules in police academies that teach them to de-escalate the situation and be more empathetic and understanding of the situation
I WOULD BE HAPPY IF THIS ARTICLE TRENDS AS WELL, BUT HAPPIER IF PEOPLE TOOK THE TIME TO READ AND EDUCATE PEOPLE MORE.